Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, but that'd be cool.

This story won't have many chapters: I only broke it up to make it easier to read. Please review, if you'd like, and enjoy!

Jana's mother told stories about the Doctor; that was why she hadn't been put in the quarantine already. When the soldiers came around, looking for people with the telltale red spots on their faces and limbs, her mom had simply invited them to sit down for a bit–which they did, though at a safe distance–and then told them one of her favorite stories, which was the Ballad of Donna Noble and the Doctor. The soldiers were so entranced that they let Jana's mom stay out of the Sick House, but they wouldn't allow her to leave the city. Since then, neither Jana nor her mother, Malya, had strayed more than twenty feet from the small tent in Pliny Market that they called home.

Even the people who came to hear her mother tell stories–and she was the best Teller on the planet Ovid, no question–stood away from the tent, straining to hear Malya's low voice. They left coins for her at their feet, and it was Jana's job to go around and collect the coins once the story was done, lest someone come and steal them. Thought Jana hadn't yet gotten the spots, people moved away from her like the nine-year-old scared them.

It was rubbish. But people, more often than not, died from the spots. There was no cure.

Never, ever had she hated the situation more than when two boys, after hearing a tale from Malya, laid a small stack on coins on the ground forty feet away. The money would have bought them two loaves of bread, at least, but the boys had placed it too far away for them to get to safely: a nearby soldier watched their every move. The two were confined to their tent just as surely as if they were locked up in the Sick House with the rest of the spotters.

"It's okay, Jana," her mother soothed, her hand gently patting Jana's back. "We won't starve without those coins. Just leave them be."

But the girl walked out to the very edges of the invisible, intangible barrier that separated them from everyone else. She mustered up enough courage to look at the faces of the other people who had come to hear her mother speak. "Please," she asked quietly. "Please, bring that money…over here so I can get it!"

The adults in the crowd looked at each other uneasily; some looked up at the sky, or down at the ground. One of the men nudged the pile over with his foot, and it was passed towards her like that, each foot in turn moving the pile a few inches.

The money would soon be in her possession, but Jana still wanted to cry. She didn't understand why.

Suddenly, someone's hand reached down and snatched up the coins with a quick, "Oh, sorry." Jana lunged for the money, her instincts overriding her rational thought, and she found herself staring into the bright eyes of a man with a lot of dark hair scattered over his forehead. He might have been tall, but she couldn't tell because he was doubled over, hands on knees, to talk to her.

"I think this is yours," he said, holding the coins in his outstretched palm. She carefully picked them up, trying to touch his skin as little as possible, but the soldier was already pushing her way through the rapidly dispersing crowd. Jana shrank back and the man straightened. He stood oddly, with his head thrust forward slightly and his hands in his pockets. He could have been shooting the breeze.

"Hold it, sir," the soldier said, her gun strapped across her back and her eyes unfriendly. "This girl is living with a spotter. It's not safe to get near her."

"A spotter? What do you mean by that?"

Although the soldier gave him a look that clearly said that she considered him an idiot, Jana was not surprised. The man wore a thin summer cloak like most of the people in the Market, but his accent marked him from somewhere much farther than this city. "Someone who has the spots, sir," the soldier said. "The red spots, like the Teller has. It's been going around the city all this summer. Killed plenty of people so far."

"Certainly, the spots. I haven't heard them called by that name before. At least, not since…never mind," the strange man said. "I think this should clear things up for you." He whipped a small black wallet out of his pocket and held it in front of the soldier.

"You're from the Planetary Health Commission! I'm very sorry, sir, I didn't mean to bother you in your work. Should I take you to the Sick House now?"

"No, no, that's alright, I have some business to take care of first. But If you could point me in the direction of the nearest unused building over two years old, I would be most obliged." He smiled then, all charm.

"Sir? W-well, there are many abandoned buildings in the poorer district…"

"Excellent. Do you know where this district is?" He was asking Jana. Asking Jana. She lowered her head, but nodded.

"Would you show me where it is? I think I might be able to help."

Jana nodded again, more slowly, but the soldier was aghast. "Sir, she could have the spots! She can't leave here."

"Well, let's see." The man pulled a long silver-ish cylinder from under his cloak, scanned her, and held it close to his face. "No, you're fine. You don't have the spots."

The two adults talked some more, but Jana didn't hear. She was floored. A sonic screwdriver. It had to be. This man was the Doctor himself! Honestly and truly! She looked back at her mom, but Malya did nothing but smile at her. She wanted to shout, Mom! He's the Doctor! But there were so many people around that the words never got past her throat. So she pointed at him, and then pointed out towards the crowds to indicate that she was going away for a while. Her mother just smiled again and nodded.

The Doctor followed Jana's gaze, saw the woman, and walked over to her. Jana held her breath as he greeted Malya. "I'm going to borrow your daughter for a minute; I'm afraid I'm rusty about the geography around here."

Malya's smile didn't change, though her eyes brightened. "Just bring her back, please." The Doctor winked and walked back towards Jana.

And sure enough, Jana found herself strolling beside the Doctor towards the rougher side of town. Here, people brushed past each other quickly, keeping their eyes on their feet in front of them, and there was less noise than in the Market. The air smelled fouler too, enough that Jana wrinkled her nose. The Doctor didn't seem to mind—from her mother's stories, Jana wasn't surprised. But she was curious about one thing, though.

"Do you…" she paused to clear her throat. "Do you really wear a, a bowtie?"

In answer, he rolled down the front of his summer cloak to reveal the bowtie and jacket underneath. "Of course I do. Bowties are cool."

Jana had to smile. It was just like the stories said.

"So your mum tells stories," the Doctor said casually. Jana nodded. "About me." She nodded again, looking off to the side. What if he didn't want to have people telling tales about him?

"Are they good ones?"

Jana looked up again and nodded, eyes wide. "Mom's the…best Teller on the planet," she said, in all seriousness. "She loves those…stories."

He smiled. They were getting into the very poor section now, where many of the buildings were uninhabited and broken down, all sorts of greenery growing in the stone and taking it back to the soil. The Doctor pulled out the screwdriver and pointed it at a few of the walls. "She was telling the Ballad of Donna Noble in the Market, if I'm not mistaken," he said. "That is one of the good ones! Wasn't sure if anyone remembered it anymore…Ha!"

He bounded over to a section of crumbling wall that was coated in a gooey green paste. "Fungus! Known here as Kresher's Last Meal, which it wasn't, actually, I think his last meal was roast beef but that doesn't make a good story, now does it. Likes old crumbly buildings, grows fast, and…" he looked over at her, "is one of the main components of Baccsin AB, which is a sure way to get rid of the spots."

As he was gathering some of the goo, wrapping it up in a leaky handkerchief, he asked, "So, do you have a favorite story?"

"Oh, my favorite? I like…I like stories with River in them."

He completely stopped for a second, staring at the goo. When he spoke, his voice was quieter. "They are good stories, aren't they?"

Jana nodded. "The best," she said. What she wanted to ask, but was afraid to, was why River wasn't with him right then. Of course, she had no idea how old he was at this moment. The stories that Malya told of River and the Doctor were often confusing to try and put in order, and Jana didn't want to give anything away. The worst thing you could do to a story, her mom had said, was tell the ending before it had run its proper course.

The Doctor meanwhile, straightened. "I should tell you about how the universe ended," he said, changing the subject. "That's another good one. Hardly anyone knows that one."

Jana thought suddenly of how much her mother would love the chance to be able to speak with the Doctor, hear his stories and see how the Time Lord was in person. "Please," she asked, "my mother…so long, nothing but stories…" Trying to put her presumptuous request into words almost choked her, but she had to continue. "Make her happy to see, to see the truth."

Fortunately, the Doctor was intelligent enough to interpret her question. "Well, all the things I need to make Baccsin AB are on the TARDIS, anyway…come along, we'll get your mum and I'll show you my TARDIS."

Malya giggled like a schoolgirl. It had been so long since her mother had laughed like that that Jana had forgotten the sound. She had forgotten that her mother was ever well enough to laugh like that, which was scary considering that she hadn't been sick that long. However, only an hour and a half after drinking the vile liquid that the Doctor said was the cure for the spots, the angry red patches on her body were fading and she seemed to have much more energy.

Of course, the energy could have been excitement from seeing something with her own eyes that had formerly only existed in stories. Or it could have been caused by the Doctor's account of the second Big Bang. Malya and Jana had hung onto every single word, but at the end of the story Malya shook her head with a smile. "It's a wonderful story, but I can't tell it in the Market," she said with a touch of remorse. "Many people are looking for something simpler, something that will add a little magic to their day. They don't want to have to think about it very much, and a story that complex will puzzle them for a long time."

"Well, only for special occasions then," the Doctor said.

All three of them sat in the TARDIS, with the Time Lord in his chair, Malya on the steps and Jana on the floor in front of the console. Now Malya looked over at the Doctor and said, "You've done so much for us. I only wish that I could do something in return."

"No, no, that's fine. I was happy to help," he replied, waving it away.

"I could tell you a story," Malya offered.

This made him laugh. "Sorry, but I think I know all of the stories that you could tell me. You see, I was there."

"I don't believe you know all of them. You don't know many of the stories about River."

The Doctor stopped laughing at once and his face grew very serious. "And you do? How do know all of this?"

Malya smoothed the front of her skirt. "I only know the stories about you that have occurred in the past from this very moment, and only the ones that people observed. You see, Doctor, you've left a trail through time and space, and some of us have dedicated our very lives to finding it."

"Me too," Jana added, to let him know that Malya wasn't only talking about herself. "I'll be a Teller…one day." Despite that fact that words rarely came out of her mouth the way she planned them to.

But the Doctor didn't laugh at her; he simply smiled an understanding sort of smile and looked again at Malya, who said, "You must understand, things that happened yesterday for you in fact may have occurred five hundred years ago for us, and the story survives, given that anyone remembers it and passes it on. Everything that happened in the past from my point of view, and that I have been able to collect, I may tell the story of."

The Doctor still looked skeptical. "You've spent your life hunting down stories about me. You spent your life doing this. And you know more about my own life than I do?"

"You may test that, if you wish," asked Jana's mom quietly. "When was the last time you saw River in a time before the present day?"

"On Andis V," he said cautiously.

"Ah. So you and she had a fight, yes?"

Jana looked up at him quickly, in time to see his face go blank again…all except his eyes. "How did you know that?" he asked.

"I know the story, if you'd like to hear it," Malya said. "I can start at the beginning, and you may stop me whenever you wish. But this might be something that you need to hear."

He looked at her sideways, but finally nodded. "All right, let's hear it."